Although Nokia’s most recent quarter earnings report is far from enviable, it did manage to post numbers that were better than what analysts had been predicting.
For its most recent fiscal quarter, Nokia posted a net loss of 68 million euros, or around $94 million. No one would wish for a report like that. But when you look at what mobile insiders had been expecting, there is certainly a silver lining.
In fact, the Dow Jones Newswires reported that analyst predictions were for the company to post a loss of 321 million euros.
That’s definitely a positive sign for Nokia as it gears up for what could be the most cataclysmic organizational change it has ever faced. The company is moving away from its own proprietary mobile operating system and will start releasing phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.
Of course, those phones won’t be available for some time, so how did Nokia manage to salvage what it did this past quarter? For starters, the company’s alliance with Microsoft gave it a lot of publicity and encouraged people to have more faith in the Nokia brand.
In addition, the company did finally release its one and only Meego-powered phone, which was only released in select markets around the globe but certainly gained new momentum after people realized Nokia was keen to get back on track.
Nokia actually remains the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, but that includes super cheap handsets especially in third world nations, territories that no other company has even entered. If you look exclusively at smartphones, Nokia is close to hitting the basement floor. The partnership with Windows Phone will be intensely interesting to watch.
